The story made us curious about beavers, so hunker down in your lodge and enjoy some facts about these emblematic animals.

Adaptable Engineers

The North American beaver lives throughout most of Canada and the U.S., as well as parts of Mexico. The only other species, the Eurasian beaver, is native to nine countries, from France to China.

“Beavers can change the landscape like almost no species other than humans,” says Glynnis Hood, wildlife ecologist at the University of Alberta’s Augustana Campus and author of The Beaver Manifesto.

The famously busy mammals build elaborate homes, which are called lodges when they are in open water and very visible, says Jimmy Taylor, research wildlife biologist with USDA's National Wildlife Research Center and Oregon State University.

Beaver Myth Busted

It may be surprising to some, but “not all beavers build dams,” says Taylor.

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A European beaver chomps down on vegetation. There are only two species of beaver.

Photograph by
Duncan Usher, Minden Pictures, Nat Geo Image Collection

Beavers can live wherever there is persistent water, but sometimes their native river is too big to dam.

But they're fine as long as they have an area to build their lodge, like a riverbank, food, access to mates, and water that allows them to escape from predators—the reason they build dams in the first place.

Multi-tasking Tails

Beavers’ leathery tails have many functions: A brace as they’re sawing down trees; communication tools to ward off predators; and as energy storage units, increasing their fat supply up to 60 percent in cold weather, Hood says.

Their tails don’t need maintenance, but their fur is another story.

In doing so, the mammals keep air spaces in their warm undercoat and distribute their outer fur with castoreum oil, which they produce to scent mark and waterproof themselves.

“They have a special grooming paw on their hind foot,like a little split toenail,” Hood says, and they “spend almost 20 percent of their time grooming" themselves and each other.